Snapshot
by genieforyourworld
Summary: Natsu would run. Lucy would write. And their lives are more complex than clockwork. — Natsu/Lucy


**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is Hiro Mashima's. Not mine. I'm not on his level of awesome.  
Mainly NaLu, with little hints of others.  
Gets a **_**little **_**bit smutty, you have been warned. I don't think it's really explicit. Let me know if you think I should up the rating. **

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Snapshot**

If there was one thing Natsu learnt about Lucy, it was that she was not like other girls.

She didn't beat him up like Erza. She didn't tease him like Mira. She didn't say silly things like Lisanna. She didn't admire him like Wendy. She didn't always have her nose in a book – even though she loved to read – like Levy.

That was probably how he fell in love with her.

But being different made it difficult for him too. For example, what was he supposed to buy her for her birthday?

The first of July. He remembered. Gray didn't. And neither did Happy. Erza did not have to wack a sword over _his _head.

He had begun to spend more and more time away from the guild and Magnolia on solo jobs, determined to find Igneel once and for all without the long, sad looks he received from his team and the other dragon slayers. But to him, if he couldn't _find _a dragon, he didn't deserve to be called a dragon slayer. He didn't deserve to be with a girl as amazing as Lucy. Yet he still carefully planned out his return home. He'd be there on time to surprise her.

She loved clothes and shopping and dressing up. Visiting Heart Kreuz didn't end well when he accidentally burnt down the lingerie section after Happy brazenly recommended something lacy, black and almost non-existent, saying it would look "_lovely" _on her. His partner had been loud enough to attract the attention of the entire store while Natsu's imagination ran away with itself.

They were banned from a fancy make up store she liked after he _accidentally _swallowed a tube of strawberry flavoured lipstick and Happy's tail knocked over a rainbow of strange powders and liquids.

A big bookshop in Crocus was supposed to be his last resort. But seeing LUCY HEARTFILIA amongst the number one bestsellers in big bold capital letters made them choke on their own spit. Lucy had published a novel. And it was _successful_. And why had she not told him?

They were soon thrown out after accidentally bringing down the entire bookshelf.

But he didn't care. He could only laugh to himself as he sat in the middle of a busy street. He'd never been so proud.

Igneel could wait a little bit longer. He needed to go home first.

...

Without fail, it soon became a habit of hers to count the days from the moment he left until the second he returned home.

He somehow knew where to find her. If he arrived during the day – the guild. In the evening – her apartment. She much preferred the privacy of the latter. That way there was nothing to distract him and keep him to herself (when had she become so _selfish?_)

Lucy liked her nightly routine. Read as much of a novel as she could curled up with Plue (and occasionally Loke when she was in the need for a companion who could actually talk back to her) and a cup of hot chocolate with three marshmallows. Maybe get some last minute writing of her own down on paper. And then tuck herself into bed and carry on reading until she fell asleep, only to freak out after losing her place in the book of the moment the following morning.

But Natsu and Happy's untimely arrivals never upset her.

They tumbled in through her window and her first reaction was to scold them for leaving muddy marks all over her freshly washed bed sheets.

"Happy birthday Lucy!" they chorused loud enough to wake the neighbours who banged furiously against their wall.

"Oh shut up!" Natsu screamed back. No reply.

Then he beamed. "Happy, get the cake!"

"What cake?" The Exceed asked innocently.

"What's that supposed to mean? I'm talking about the one we bought on our way here."

"Oops."

"How could you lose it? I spent all our money on it!"

With a sigh and a shake of her head, Lucy pulled them into a warm hug. She felt Natsu tense slightly, and Happy squirm trying to escape.

"Help! Lucy's trying to eat me instead!" But his cries went ignored. "Let me go! You don't need the extra pounds!"

"You're home, that's all I need for my birthday. You're a few hours early, by the way." She savoured the scent of Natsu's hair – a strange mix of fire and rainwater, holding him just a little bit tighter.

...

Makarov's death ensured that no one in the guild smiled for days.

It felt like a piece of himself had died with him. Natsu could only remember two parts to his life, just as how a coin only has two sides. When there was Igneel, and when there was Gramps.

Erza was trying her best to hold everyone together, silently chosen to lead in his place. But Natsu knew she was hurting perhaps even more so than he.

It was a dark time for them all, yet what he clearly remembered the most was Lucy's hand warm in his own with her other smoothing his hair.

He managed a small smile for her, _always _for her. Ever too kind and selfless, forever thinking of the guild first, that was who Lucy was. So he – in return – offered his shoulder as a place to rest her head.

It wasn't much, but it was the beginning of a new chapter, or so he could imagine her saying in her fancy writer's speak.

The silence broke when Laxus spoke up, and Lucy was the first to laugh with him. "Hey guys, remember when he told us to run?"

...

"If you could visit one place in the world, where would it be?" she asked curiously.

"I…" he closed his eyes, stuck for an answer. He wasn't really going anywhere in life – he just sort of took each day as it came.

Lucy giggled lightly looking down at Natsu, waiting for a sure answer she knew would never come. He lay stretched out on the grass on the small hill in the quiet outskirts of town, seemingly trying to hide his face behind his scarf. If she could ever call him cute, it would be like this.

"I dunno," he sighed. "Everything I really need is right here."

She felt her cheeks redden. Somehow he always managed to that. Probably without intending to. But he looked somewhat bitter, making her heart drop. She knew he would never get over the loss of his father, just as how she would never get over losing hers.

"OK then, how about the one place you do _not _want to visit?" she said, brushing back the loose strands of unruly pink hair covering his forehead.

"What's with all of these questions?" He quirked an eyebrow, looking up at her sitting next to him.

"Why can't you just answer?" she huffed.

"Maybe 'cause it's funny seeing you react like this," he laughed.

"It's not funny!" she pouted, turning her head away.

"Yes it is." He sat up and reached for her arm. "Come here, ya weirdo." Natsu pulled her close and tucked her into him, marvelling at how well she seemed to fit in his arms. He rested his chin on top of head and just breathed in the night air that was moist, cool and just like Lucy.

...

Lucy had always wanted a big sister. Even more so after her mother died. And Erza was the closest she would ever get to the real thing.

But sometimes she felt there was a limit to what sisters talked about with each other.

"Did you use the bunny suit like I told you to?"

The younger woman choked on her tea.

"Uh… No I didn't. Not yet, anyway," she replied shakily.

"You should. It fits you well. I bet Natsu will love it," Erza said, setting her own cup down.

She loved their girly talks, their shopping trips and lunches. But Lucy hated how Erza could read her like an open book.

"You're not happy, are you? Not entirely."

Lucy sighed. "I love him. I really do. But sometimes I wish he were here more often." She looked up to meet a pair of empathetic brown eyes and a sad smile. Immediately she felt guilty. Erza understood her loneliness more than anyone, and had entrusted Lucy with all of her secrets and feelings. In fact, after everything the poor girl had been through, she had it much worse.

"The bunny suit will work wonders. Trust me." And Lucy did trust her, as much as she trusted Natsu and Gray. Both women smiled and laughed lightly.

"I'll go get the wine," Lucy winked.

...

More than once, he returned home blood soaked and bones disgustingly out of place.

And each time she coughed back tears. Which made his heart hurt worse.

He soon came to learn that she was the best medicine – as cheesy and girly as that sounded. When she kissed him on the forehead it felt like he was flying. When her hands brushed his skin his legs went weak. Which was bad because he never felt like that when faced with villains and monsters who could squash him flat in two seconds.

He wasn't sure how it had ended up this way, so close there was no space between them. The lights were off and so were their clothes.

Natsu pressed his mouth to her neck, softly licking and nibbling at her skin. One hand moved to her hair and the other left the space between her thighs to hold her hip – to keep her close, to make sure she never got away.

Her nails dug into his biceps when he bit down harder, and the noises that came out of her mouth made his blood burn hotter than any battle had ever done. He pulled back and watched her, beautifully illuminated by moonlight and trails of light from the streetlamps outside.

Long, elegant fingers reached up to cup his face, brushed his bottom lip, then the scar on his neck before sliding into his hair. He knew she didn't want to be, but Lucy was very ladylike, in the delicate sense of the word. It scared him.

"Natsu…" she breathed. She sounded like an angel and it was driving him fucking crazy. The corners of her mouth lifted into a perfect smile – she was letting him in, giving him everything.

So he was going to give her everything _he _could in return.

...

Lucy loved weddings, there was always something quite magical about them. She waited, slightly impatient, for the day when Natsu would propose to her. And she had way too much fun trying to think of all the possible scenarios.

Down by the river, outside her front door. Or maybe one day as he prepared to jump out of her window after saying goodbye for the evening.

Perhaps during a job in Hargeon, the place they first met all those years ago.

She had written a book on it. Not that anyone, not even Levy, had seen that unpublished fantasy. She would die of embarrassment if it ever saw the light of day. Several times – luckily – she'd manage to save it from the curious hands of her friends' children, and a certain flying cat.

Even looking down at the pregnancy test, she imagined him rushing her over to the cathedral as soon as she broke the news. They'd marry there and then, wearing her favourite skirt and he, as always, his scarf.

Still she waited.

...

They were getting older. And he was saddened watching her always be the bridesmaid, never the bride.

Just a little bit longer, he was sure of it.

He hoped she trusted him enough to wait.

...

He was thirty years old. Maybe. He never quite knew his own age, strangely enough. And until recently, he hadn't really cared.

"How did you do it?" he asked Gajeel as they sat on the roof of the guild, hidden from the sight of the sleepy town beneath them.

"Do what?" the other dragon slayer replied, spitting out a hunk of rusty metal.

"Move on."

Gajeel eyed Natsu curiously, silent for a while as he tried to word – hell, even find – his answer.

"I didn't," he sighed eventually. Natsu turned to catch his eye, but Gajeel was looking out over Magnolia, purposely avoiding it. "I just found something more important."

_The guild_, was what Natsu believed he meant at first. But he knew that Lucy would specifically say _Levy_. That girl was such a hopeless romantic sometimes.

Natsu ruffled his messy pink hair and followed his friend's _(was that really what they were?)_ gaze. "Me too, I think. Me too."

...

He looked at Erza's boy, wide eyed and jaw slackened.

"They made _you _S-Class?" Natsu questioned, shock evident in his voice that seemed to have reached a very unmanly pitch.

He was met with a slight smirk in return, and over the kid's shoulder he could hear Macao and Wakaba trying to stifle their old man chuckles.

"But you're like ten years old!" He could swear that less than two months ago (when he had last been home) the damn brat had barely reached his elbow in height. It felt like only three months ago he had been tucked into the crook of his arm, only a couple of hours old (Erza had been crying tears of happiness, so Lucy of course had to turn on the waterworks. Then Juvia had joined in. And Gray had run off, while Happy sat outside crying because cats were not allowed in the hospital but he wanted to see the baby too…).

Now Natsu did not have to look down to meet his eye and ruffle his thick, floppy red hair (he mentally blessed the edge his own spiky hair gave him).

"Fourteen actually." The corner of his mouth etched further upwards, cocky and somewhat familiar. "Beat my mother's record of being the youngest in Fairy–"

"Yeah, yeah whatever," he laughed, still believing it all to be nonsense. "Did Gray put you up to this to try and make fun of me? Wait, no, I get what's going on – I bet mummy's just coddling her precious little baby again–"

Before his mind could even register the fast flash of red and a bright light that_ he knows he's seen before _mixed with the sound of metal slicing the air, Natsu felt his back collide roughly with the dirty wooden floor, a boot pinning down his chest and the pressure of a blade point pressed against his neck.

About to question where the fuck the brat had pulled the sword out from (because he definitely had not been carrying a sheath) he looked up see a crooked, boastful grin that the boy's father surely would have been proud of, were he still a crazy evil bastard.

"Strong enough for you, _old man?_" he teased, breath even and not a single scarlet hair out of place.

...

Gray's youngest girl, Natsu learns, is very chatty. He got along with her much better than he did with her father, so much to the extent that he's pretty sure that they're not related at all. He also notices that she tries hard to act mature for her age. He sympathised with her, which is probably why they got along famously, because he knows what it is like to be treated like a little kid by the other (only _slightly _older) kids in the guild.

She avidly listens to all of his adventures on the road with interest, twirling a lock of dark hair around her finger as she does so (he's thankful that Lucy's novels and gifts at storytelling are starting to wear off on him. Gray, on the other hand, says it's because he's getting old – which he takes no notice of).

However, when he was part way through the tale of how he and Happy gallantly rescued some rich noble lady who was apparently the King's second cousin, or something, from an odd trio of gold thieves, a young boy of about twelve with obnoxious white hair and the Lamia Scale mark emblazoned on his back burst through the guild doors loudly challenging any Fullbuster – or any other silly fairy – that would take him on. Natsu rolled his eyes and moved to turn back to the girl, only to find her gone. After searching high and low, he found her soon enough hiding beneath a table, blushing furiously and begging him not to give her away through a unintelligible stutter.

_Oh_.

Gray was certainly going to _love _this.

...

She had spent years watching him with the kids. From Romeo to Asuka and then their surrogate nieces and nephews. They loved him almost as much as she. He had even raised Happy (who somehow had slightly – just a little bit – more common sense).

Lucy knew early on that one day he would make a great father.

But nothing ever came close to the sight of him twirling their own daughter round and round until they both collapsed, wanting to laugh but lacking the energy.

Beaming, Lucy walked over to pluck the stray blades of grass that had coiled into her daughter's fair hair. The little girl's dark eyes glittered with all the love and affection her parents had put into her.

Lucy couldn't help but scream when somehow the ground disappeared from beneath her feet and she was falling, falling, falling… But when Natsu's laugh finally sounded in the air she knew she was safe. She punched him playfully in the arm for dragging her down and pushed herself away from him.

"C'mon don't be such a kid," he said between chuckles. "_She's _braver than _you_, Lucy!"

"Shut up!" Not her best come back. But she was always careful to watch her words around the little ones. No one would be blaming her for the mayhem the next generation would bring. "Don't do unnecessary things then," she huffed and brushed back the hair that had fallen in front of her eyes.

Natsu's laugh was a sound like no other. Boyish and loud despite his years, but Lucy still loved it even when he tried to annoy her.

She loved it even more when he reached forward to put his hand on her arm and leaned across the grass to kiss her. The feeling was light and warm and he had this annoying habit of smiling when their lips pressed together. It still made her stomach flip.

Their daughter on the other hand, wasn't very impressed. "Eww! Stop! Stop! Stop!" she cried, waving her arms frantically. But next thing Lucy knew, Natsu had broken away and tackled their little girl into a fit of giggles as he tickled her.

With a shake of her head, Lucy headed back into her kitchen where her eldest – the calmer and quieter of the two – had fallen asleep at the table whilst reading. With a quick kiss to the child's forehead she set about making dinner, listening to the maniacs out in the garden – her daughter's laughter every bit as magical as her father's.

...

Putting pen to paper was easier said than done.

But it was still something she loved. Lucy twirled her favourite pen between her fingers, thinking about what she could write next. She stopped when she noticed the clock over the fire had stopped its gentle ticking.

Abandoning her desk, she walked over to inspect the device. She wasn't any good with mechanics, and briefly pondered over which celestial spirit could fix it. It was ridiculous how complex all of the little parts looked, and she considered leaving the clock alone before she broke it even further.

She was distracted, however, when the front door burst open loudly. "We're home!" Natsu's voice called. But before she could tell him of her dilemma, she was lifted into the air, meeting him eye-to-eye.

"Happy birthday!" he said pulling her closer to bury his nose in her hair. His hold on her became tighter.

"Thank you. Now _please _put me down," she ordered. When he finally complied, she pulled him down for a kiss, only to pause half way. In his eyes she saw _everything _looking back at her. The clock seemed so simple and insignificant when compared to the pictures and images that spanned years of adventures, heartache and happiness.

"Are you alright?" Natsu questioned, a hand toying with her hair and concern washing over his face.

"Yeah," she smiled gently and he returned the expression with that same boyish, toothy grin she first saw in Hargeon before he closed the gap between them.

* * *

**Extra: **Originality. I lack it. But I'm in love with the idea that one day Gray and Lyon's kids will fall for each other. In other news, I'm not the only one who hates this awful new layout, right? The margins are annoying.


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